Morgan Stanley plans 1,600 job cuts in 2012 1Q

Investment bank Morgan Stanley says it will cut 1,600 jobs across all levels of the firm starting next month in the first quarter.

A spokesman for the New York company said Thursday that the cuts will include analyst, associate, vice president, executive director and managing director levels and will be completed in the quarter. The bank had more than 62,000 employees at the end of September, and the cuts amount to more than 2 percent of that total.

Morgan Stanley says it is making the cuts after doing a year-end performance management review to determine the right size of the company for next year.

It also becomes the latest major bank to announce job cuts in face of market turmoil.